


Everything Comes Back To You

by imnotmadeofeyes



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Hidden Feelings, M/M, Niall puts his emotion in the open, Oblivious!Liam, Pining, Supportive!Zayn, This Town - Niall Horan, because why the heck not, side larry - Freeform, songfic of a sort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 21:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8225339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imnotmadeofeyes/pseuds/imnotmadeofeyes
Summary: Niall has enough of it, so he puts his feelings out in the open. Everything goes as planned.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to this song, and I had the strong feeling that my shipper heart would have to get used to having lots of feelings because of this. I had to realise I was right while writing this short fic while listening to This Town over and over again.

Niall is tired. The hiatus has been on for months now, and he feels like it’s been too long. He longs to be back in the studio, longs to be back with his best friends. He understands why they wanted this – there was too much drama, too much everything. But he feels like the longer they’re apart, the further they grow apart as well. Harry’s gone into acting, Liam into producing, and Louis is still fighting with the media, because the kid’s not his and even though he loves the little bugger, he doesn’t want people to think anything other than that he and Harry are still madly in love. It’s ... it hurts him. Niall misses the tour bus with its cramped space, and the unfamiliar hotel rooms. He misses the homesickness, even.

  
It’s not really gone, he thinks. It’s still there, only now he doesn’t ache for Ireland, but for the boys, the streets, the world, the music. He misses it. Most of all, he misses Liam. It’s a thing he’d realised a long time ago – no matter where he was, when Liam was there, it almost felt like home. He never shared that with anyone; there was enough drama with Harry and Louis having to keep secret. And anyways, he doubts that it would be the same for Liam. Liam has his girlfriends – Danielle, Sophie, whatever they’re called. Niall likes them, all of them. They make Liam happy.  
But it’s not ... he doesn’t dare think it’s not him.

  
That would be rude and unfair, and they don’t deserve it.

  
Eventually, Niall decides to write about it. He needs to let it out, somehow. He has nobody to talk to, not about this, even though he knows that both Harry and Louis, even Zayn would understand. Sometimes he itches to just call Harry and rant about it. Harry would be supportive and he wouldn’t pity him for being helplessly in love with his best friend in the world. But he doesn’t. It’s a secret he needs to keep, to protect himself, his family, his friends – the band, most of all. He doesn’t want more rumors about him than there already are for never having a girlfriend.

  
So what else is there that he can do? Nothing. So he gets his guitar out – the old one that he learned to play on, that he had with him wherever he went when he was just a kid, the one he played those nights where they spent their summer here after losing X Factor. And the words come to him naturally, as well as the tune. It’s not the experience he has with writing songs, nor the experience he has with music. It’s the words he kept inside for too long, and all the emotions he’s kept hidden for years and years. That’s what pours out of him when he sits down and writes. It’s good. Amazing, even. He loves it. People will love it, too. He’s sure of that.

  
This is why when the tune’s done, he calls Liam. Liam is still in LA, not back home, and he’s working with some amazing artists there. Niall doesn’t know if he envies him or if he just wants him to come home so that there’s not as much distance between them.

  
“Nialler!” Liam picks up almost right away, like he’s been waiting for Niall to call. That is a very abstract idea, Niall knows, bu it still feels good and calms his racing heart.

“Hya Liam” He replies softly. “I’ve got something to tell you!” When Liam asks, Niall tells him about the song. Liam is excited to hear the news, and he congratulates him on doing his own thing without even having heard the song. That is one of the things Niall adores: Liam is so supportive about everything his loved ones do, and he never fails to show his enthusiasm. The phone call leaves a warm feeling inside him, and he’s pretty sure his mum knows what’s going on when she asks him what made him so happy and he told her that he spent time on the phone with Liam.

  
He flies to the States just a couple of days later, as soon as he gets a flight. People don’t see him, and those few who recognize him are quiet about it. He’s giddy and excited the whole time, even though he knows Los Angeles very well and there won’t be anything new. It’s that excitement you get when you come home from a long trip, and you ache to be where you belong again.

  
It’s good to see Liam again. They hug tightly, for quite a while, and something settles inside Niall when he smells the familiar cologne and feels his best friend close to him. They spent countless nights cuddled together, watching movies or just talking or sometimes just doing nothing at all but trying to keep each other close and warm – a piece of home in each other.

  
“I missed you” Liam admits when they let go of each other, and Niall can’t help but smile.

  
“I missed you, too“ He replies. “I’m really glad to see you."

  
Liam beams and his eyes are twinkling, and Niall falls in love with him all over again.

  
They spend a couple of days together just doing nothing – they watch movies, make music, go swimming in the pool that belongs to Liam’s apartment, meet up with Harry and Louis and other mutual friends of theirs. Only at day four, Niall hits the studio, and the next two weeks he spends there holed up with the guys that help him work out the right tune for the song. He barely sees Liam, but they still make enough time so that it feels like coming home when the song is done. Niall has a CD in his hands with the finished object on it, and drafts of the album cover and everything.

  
He wants Liam to be the first one who hears it.

  
“Liam, I’m home!” Niall calls when he opens the door to the flat – he’s excited and nervous, and his heart is almost jumping out of his chest. Liam calls from the kitchen, and when Niall enters, he finds him making mac’n’cheese for the both of them.

  
“You’re home early” Liam says, “Thought you’d be home in half an hour, earliest”

  
“We got done today” Niall shrugs, and sniffs at the food. “That smells delicious”

  
“That’s amazing!” Liam grins, and his dark eyes are shining. “Do you like the outcome?”

  
“Yeah. Do you want to hear it?” He fishes the cd out of his pocket, and Liam actually beams when he hands it to him.

  
“Oh god, you got me the demo!”

  
“It’s not a demo – it’s the unofficial very first version of my single that’ll come out in a few weeks” Niall replies, and then blushes a bit when he admits: “I wanted you to be the first one to hear it.”

  
Liam hugs him excitedly, very much reminding Niall of Liam’s dogs or Louis’ little sisters, before running to the living room to put it into the cd player. He sits down in one of the armchairs, absolutely forgetting about the food, and listens excitedly to Niall’s tune. Niall watches Liam intently: he looks concentrated, keeps biting on his lips, but his eyes are shining. His fingers start twitching like he’s already trying to figure out how to play it, and at the end he already mouths the words of the chorus. He looks homey and beautiful and Niall is absolutely helplessly in love with him.

  
“.. So?”

  
“It’s amazing!” Liam grins. “I knew it’d be”

  
For the rest of the evening, all through dinner and cleaning up and playing video games, they keep talking about the song. When it’s coming out, how he wants to promote it, whether there’s an album to follow, anything and everything. Niall doesn’t know whether he’s glad or sad that Liam doesn’t understand what the song is about. In the end, he decides it’s both – he’s glad because it could’ve made things very difficult, and he’s sad because things could’ve become so much easier.

  
A couple of days later, he flies home again. He visits Zayn in London before going home – after all, they haven’t seen each other in a while. Niall loves Zayn like a brother; they always got on really well, and Zayn has always been something of an anchor to him. Zayn listens to it thrice, in different states of highness, and after the third time he smiles slightly at him.

  
“He didn’t figure it out, did he?”

  
Niall is a bit startled how Zayn knows, but then he decides not to worry about it – Zayn is good at depicting things, and he’s a good listener and he understands a lot, so of course he can add one and one together and make sense out of it. “No, he didn’t” Niall replies, and reaches for the blunt, “He congratulated me, though, and we celebrated it.”

  
“At least he’s supportive” Zayn shrugs. “He’ll come around, buddy, don’t you worry.”

  
Niall is not so sure about that. He hasn’t heard much from Liam since he left LA, and Niall misses him like crazy. But what is he supposed to do? He put his love out there, for all the world and especially Liam to see. Now it’s either going to work out, or he’ll have to move on. He’s not sure he can, but enough people have proven that it’s possible so he’ll at least give it a try.

  
His whole family is terribly excited about the song, and everybody congratulates him on the great work. He feels good, though he knows deep down that the praise he got from Liam is worth more than anything else. The day of the release comes around, and Niall celebrates with his mates from Mullingar. It’s not the same as celebrating the release of an album with his band, but it’s okay. Josh, their drummer, swings by, and it’s good, reminiscing of old times and taking time to talk about the break and what’s about to happen next.

  
He still feels strangely empty. The feelings he’s kept bottled up for so long are out there now, for everyone to see, and the knowledge of his secret out for everyone to see is weird.

  
The next day, when he’s home alone, the doorbell rings. He thinks it’ll be the postman with a package for one of his parents, but it turns out that it’s not – and the sight he has when he opens the door startles him. It’s not the postman or one of the neighbours asking for something. It’s Liam.

  
“What are you doing here?” Niall asks after a second of silence because he has absolutely no idea why Liam is here, in Ireland, not in Los Angeles.

  
“I – I’m sorry, is this a bad time?” Liam asks, and he looks like a lost puppy forgotten in the rain – just that it’s not raining right now.

  
Niall startles, “No! Sorry, come in, I just – why are you here?”

  
Liam steps in, toes off his shoes and puts them away like they belong in this house. He puts down his luggage – a small bag, not more. He doesn’t seem to plan on staying here longer. Only when Niall’s front door is closed, he answers. “I’m here ‘cause I’ve been a dumbass”

  
“Wha- why? What?”

  
“Niall” Liam sighs. “The song. It’s about me, isn’t it? About us dancing, and about us spending so much time here when we were younger, and about – about you being in love with me. Right?”

  
Niall doesn’t know what to say. How did Liam figure out? Zayn was the only one who did – and Harry, probably, but that boy’s too smart for his own good. He has no idea how he could possibly get out of it, so in the end he tells the truth: “Yes. Yes, it is.”

  
Liam does something that probably surprises them both – he lunges forward, cupping Niall’s face in both hands, and he kisses him. Niall is frozen, for a second, and panics. But before Liam can properly pull back, he gets a hold of his sweater because how the fuck could he let something like this slip by and kisses him back with everything he has. The kiss is deep and loving and full of everything they still haven’t said and talked about. Niall’s mind goes completely blank because he has been dreaming about this for years and this is better than everything he’s ever imagined and that is – wow. That is just wow.

  
When they pull back, it’s just enough that they can stare into each other’s eyes.  
“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

  
“Didn’t dare”

  
“But we lost so much time – years, we lost years.”

  
“You could’ve told me, too, you know – that you weren’t straight, and that you are –“

  
“I am in love with you, Niall, you can say that”

  
“I love you, too, Liam”

  
“I know. So, how about we make up for the time lost?”

  
Niall kisses him again, and it’s every answer either of them need.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave some feedback :) Thanks for reading! x


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